Category Archives: Plex

Plex Media Server Upgrade

Choppy Video Fix for Plex on Xbox-One and Sony TVs

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Sony Bravia TV SettingsAfter a lot of troubleshooting, I’ve finally managed to get smooth video and audio out of Plex running via the Xbox One out to my Sony Bravia TV.

My Problem(s):

  • Regardless of file format or container (both mkvs and mp4), the video output from Plex on XBox One was choppy and jittery on my TV.  This was amplified during panning shots, where the camera moves across a landscape or during shots where everything on-screen was in motion.
  • Audio always seemed too quiet and not balanced properly.
  • The video problems were very noticeable on Plex, but they also seemed to affect HDMI pass-through, and even in-game video sequences.

My Set-up: 

  • XBOX One loaded to the most recent beta update (March 29th, 2015 release).
  • Latest Plex app on Xbox One
  • Most up-to-date Plex Media Server: version 0.9.11.17.986.
  • Sony Bravia TV (My model is KDL-55HX800)
  • My Xbox plugged directly into the TV via HDMI.  No stereo speaker system.

The Fix(es): 

  • For some reason, I had my Xbox set up to pass 5.1 signal to my TV speakers via HDMI.  I fixed this in the XBOX-One settings and changed it to only pass uncompressed stereo.  I also turned off optical audio.  I saw a minor improvement in video, and the audio seemed “normal” again.
  • The BIG fix was to disable anything having to do with “motion” on the TV settings.
    • CineMotion: OFF
    • MotionFlow: OFF

Apparently, the XBOX-One does its own smoothing of video motion, which doesn’t mix well with what the TV tries to do, resulting in a chopping, weird, frame-skipping video output. Turning off these Sony Bravia settings fixed this issue completely for me!

 

How to Manually Update Plex Media Server on Ubuntu

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Since the repositories are not updated often, it is best to manually download and install the updated versions of Plex Media Server manually. You may be forced to do this if you’ve seen the “An update is available. Please install the update manually.” error:

An Update Is available. Please install the update manually.

This is fairly simple (performed on Ubuntu 14.04):

  1. Backup: Consider backing up your metadata and preferences.  Updating this package should not affect either, but better safe than sorry.  Plex wiki on what to back up.
  2. Grab the file and get it to the server: Now you need to get the new package onto the server. You can do one of two things:
    Transfer using WinScp: Go to the Plex Media Server download site, log in, and download the latest version (be sure to check under “PlexPass”), then manually move it onto the server using a program like WinSCP.
    OR…
    Directly download the file to the server: Figure out the URL for the file to be downloaded, and then just use wget on the Linux server (this is just an example URL – find the current version!):

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ wget https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server/0.9.11.7.803-87d0708/plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb

  3. Install: Pretty easy! Just install the .deb file:

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb

    You’ll get something that looks like this:

    plexuser@plexserver:~$ sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb
    [sudo] password for plexuser:
    (Reading database ... 198842 files and directories currently installed.)
    Preparing to unpack plexmediaserver_0.9.11.7.803-87d0708_amd64.deb ...
    plexmediaserver stop/waiting
    Unpacking plexmediaserver (0.9.11.7.803-87d0708) over (0.9.11.5.774-760cb52) ...
    Setting up plexmediaserver (0.9.11.7.803-87d0708) ...
    plexmediaserver start/running, process 8686
    Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.1+14.10.20140925-0ubuntu1) ...
    Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
    Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu2) ...
    Processing triggers for mime-support (3.55ubuntu1) ...
    Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
    Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
    plexuser@plexserver:~$

  4. Verify: That’s really all there is to it. The command above should have restarted your server automatically for you. On your Plex server web panel, navigate to: Settings->Server to verify that you’re on the latest version!
    Plex Version 0.9.11.7 Up to date